Camden Crawl 2009 - Rated!

Various venues, Camden, north London - 24-25 April

The 2009 edition of Camden Crawl may be one of the finest yet, but there are a few creases to iron out yet argues Daniel Fahey.

Overall – 7/10

This year, now its fifth, the Camden Crawl has made a few subtle tweaks
that will, if kept, propel the festival into the big time. Most notably organisers decided to add the historic and newly refurbished
Roundhouse to its venue roster, which gives the festival a more obvious ‘main stage’ and allows the likes of Kasabian and Yeah
Yeah Yeahs to be televised. However fans wishing to watch any of the Roundhouse gigs are asked to queue for an
additional wristband on top of the festival pass they’ve already lined up to get. And for a festival that’s already
optimised by queues, this seems almost inexcusable. Surely selecting which headliner to see when tickets are bought is fairer
and more plausible? The scheme also unfortunately means that those waiting for the evening show are likely to miss some of
the opening acts.

However, the festival’s strengths lie elsewhere, mainly in the breadth of musical talent
on show. It’s remarkable that Camden Crawl is able to boast emerging acts of such quality, while some bigger festivals
fail to produce anything of such sustenance with a full programme of established artists. The glorious spring weather certainly
adds to the jollity and revelry of the weekend and the daytime quizzes, poetry, film and comedy extend the experience for
those who want something more than simply bands and booze.

The on-going evolution of the event also sees the addition
of a reduced and alcohol-free version of the festival, called X-Crawl, debut over the weekend. The mini-fest
gives 14-18 year olds the chance to watch some of the bands that are playing the main event including Eugene McGuiness,
Howling Bells and Pulled Apart By Horses in a selection of local venues. If organisers continue
to develop the event in a similar fashion, Camden Crawl could become the most important London festival there is on offer,
especially if they were able to secure pedestrianisation for the two days.

Getting there and back –
7/10

Getting to London’s Camden is easy; three Northern Line tube stations (Mornington Crescent,
Camden Town, Chalk Farm) all serve the main thoroughfare, while a multitude of bus routes allow access from further a field.
However if festival-goers wish to stay and enjoy any of the after parties until the end, the underground network closes before
1am leaving fans to get night buses and taxis home.

Site – 6/10

The event takes
over 40 venues around Camden borough, which give the festival its character and identity. Festival-goers can be found anywhere
from the newly refurbished Roundhouse and the trusty and rusty Koko theatre to the sticky floored Enterprise and any number
of impromptu shows on the streets. However, unlike your run of the mill festivals, drinking along the main thoroughfare is
prohibited and police officers are prone to tipping away that pint you just spent £3.50 on. Elsewhere The Monarch (former
lifeless cheap bar Man In The Moon) benefited from a facelift, Barfly looked fresh after being given a lick of paint outside
– thankfully not in - and Winehouse’s local, The Hawley Arms is back in action following last year’s fire.Atmosphere – 7/10

Encouraged, no doubt, by strong spring sunshine and driven by
daytime drinking, festival-goers over the weekend were relaxed, friendly and chatty. The busy streets of Camden, home of countless
indie Dick Whittingtons and the discarded gig leaflet, had the buzz of excitable fans that’s usually found in the campsites
of outdoor festivals following the headliners. There’s moshing to be found at the likes of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kasabian,
hushed silence at the likes of Alessi’s Ark and dirty dancing at Westwood –
no real lager louts or thugs running the party atmosphere, but there is a great Irish beggar that tells jokes for money outside
Jazz Café.

Music

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – 8/10What people wouldn’t give to be as cool as Karen O.
The frontwoman of the New York punks did little more than hold different poses during the band’s headline set and she
still got huge cheers from the crowd. Musically the performance was startling; the new material gave off a dancier resonance
that’s not found on record, while old classics like ‘Gold Lion’ still remained crowd pleasers. From the
new album both ‘Zero’ and ‘Heads Will Roll’ were welcomed like rarely performed gems, while an ethereal
version of ‘Maps’ was the standalone highlight. Kasabian
– 8/10With a largely underwhelming second album (albeit two singles) and the early glimpses of their
third sounding like it might follow suit, you have to ask how much longer Kasabian can live off of their self-titled debut? Quite some time it would seem after this performance.
Big mouth lead singer Tom Meighan is as boisterous as ever and hits like ‘Clubfoot’, ‘Empire’
and ‘Shoot The Runner’ during the short set are aggressively thunderous. The only disappointment is Meighan’s
clobber – a light grey, star emblazoned shirt anyone?

Crazy Cousinz – 7/10With
the line-up predominantly indie based, this DJ duo offer an alternative snapshot of an emerging dance scene. A mixture of
high tempo dancehall beats, chopped with garage b-lines and classic vocals made sure that the party continued into the early
hours of Saturday morning. Cuts of ‘Show Me Love’ as well as their own ‘Funky Anthem’ set the Jazz
Café alight and look set to burn dancefloors up and down the country soon.Hockey – 6/10With news spreading of The Enemy’s cancellation, Hockey played to a fairly sparse crowd but those who chose
to watch something else certainly missed out. The American five-piece mix 80’s indulgence with disco rhythms and a dash
of country music with lead single and set sing-a-long ‘Too Fake’ proving their finest moment of the performance.Gold Teeth – 6/10Stuffed onto a very
small Barfly stage, Gold Teeth’s energetic calypso ska proves just slightly too boisterous for the flaying microphone
that hits the floor as frontman Joe de Costa jumps in the crowd for the addictive summer anthem ‘Everybody’.
A few dodgy lyrics aside, these could make a very serious assault on the summer circuit in the next few years.

The View – 4/10Plaudits to the band for managing to get
through an entire set this time, but Dundee’s post-Libertines garage boys may’ve been swallowed by the swash of
the indie wave that hit the UK in the early 2000s. ‘5Rebeccas’ and ‘Superstar Tradesman’ stand out
as thrash pop, but they are hardly going to be remembered in a few years time, while the boys’ ‘performance’
(generally just standing on stage) is as lacklustre as the set itself.

Drums Of Death – 4/10Face paint, a DJ doth not make. Despite his Halloween make-up, which
looks a lot like a panda, the highly anticipated set from this emerging Scottish producer is nothing but frightfully poor.
His chunky cuts of b-line bashed against heavy crashing electro leaves little to write home about.The Enemy – 0/10Fans who did the extra legwork and waited to get a wristband for
the Coventry trio were left disappointed when they pulled the gig at the last minute due to singer Tom Clarke suffering from
a sore throat.

DownersAnother queue please CarolWith
queuing a British institution, this festival would never work anywhere else in the world, but for every person patiently waiting
10 minutes to watch a band there was always someone trying to push in at the front. Embarrassing when you get caught isn’t
it?Random Events

Mid-street MadnessThey promised secret shows
around the town, but their gig (to the tune of ‘Our House’) “in the middle of the street,”
- Inverness Street to be exact – was the most ska-tastic.

MagiciansJust short of making
the queues disappear, magicians entertaining the lines of people waiting for shows were wizard. A very special mention must
go to the trickster who removed a man’s watch without him noticing – great work.